If craft beer, good food and live local rock bands is your kind of thing, you have to check out Zander’s Fire Grill & Brew Lounge on King George Road in Brantford. Zander’s opened just over a year and half ago, but the community is flocking there raving about the food, the atmosphere and the

If craft beer, good food and live local rock bands is your kind of thing, you have to check out Zander’s Fire Grill & Brew Lounge on King George Road in Brantford. Zander’s opened just over a year and half ago, but the community is flocking there raving about the food, the atmosphere and the great prices.

Owner John Coutsis has a generations-long family history in the restaurant business. He successfully opened two other top notch local restaurants unique to the City of Brantford: Gus & Guidos and Angel’s Diner. Zander’s Fire Grill definitely follows suit in quality meals combined with a great dining experience.

This is one of the only places locally you can order Beer Can Chicken, which is literally roasted chicken floating on a beer can. Coutsis says it is by far it is one of the most popular dishes. Mondays they offer $5 burgers, Tuesdays is $10 Pasta Night and on Sundays Kids Eat Free after 3pm.

Coutsis says he wanted to open a place that was more geared to the thirty-something crowd. “Someplace I would go. Somewhere I could take my wife and we could have a good time, enjoy some delicious food, some great beer. But also a place people could bring their kids during the day and grab a burger for lunch.”

The dining room is a comfortable, friendly and open atmosphere where you feel like you can just settle in and hang out for a while. Painted portraits hung on the walls are a classy homage to legendary rock icons like Kurt Cobain, John Lennon and Jim Morrison, which comes across way cooler than the cookie cutter “as-much-eclectic-memorabilia-as-you-can-fit-up-there” style many other restaurants of the rock genre have adopted.

Zander’s bar area has some great decor as well: two custom Harley Davidson motorcycles and a one of a kind flaming electric guitar chandelier. Behind the bar are some of the friendliest servers in the area, and on tap you will find local and organic craft beers such as: Zander’s own Craft Brewed Red, Cream Ale, Lager and Dark Lager, Bell City Brewery’s Eureka Cream Ale, Mill St. Brewery’s Organic Original beer, and Beau’s Lug & Tread.

Finally, to raise the bar even higher, Zander’s offers weekly entertainment. If you want to see the listing there’s an events calendar on the website (www.zanders.ca) where all the acts are listed. Local artists like Kristin Nicholls and The Crimps bring people out for a great time every week. Check out their Acoustic Brunch Sundays at 11:30am: an All You Can Eat Buffet until 3pm.